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.X. ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



Mayor and Common Council of the City of Monrovia, 



JVIjY 26, 1865, 



^he !tE)at} of l^ational Independence; 



AND REPEATEB 



ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1865, AT CALDWELL, ST. PAUL'S EIVER. 



Rev. EDWARD ^Y: BLYDEIST, A.M., 

PROFESSOR IX LIBERIA COLLEGE. 



f^u'""^) 



I 



JOUx\ A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTERS, 10 AND 18 JACOB STREET. 

18 5. 






/ 



r 



31 0.^ 



-^ 



Hon. DAINTIEL B. AVAI^^STEK 



rRF-SIPEST OF THE REPfBL'C OF LIBERIA, 



THIS ADDRESS IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 



Sis n IHcmorial 



OF LOXG-STAXDIXG AND IXTIMATE FRIEXDSUIP, 



AND OF SINCERE ADMIRATION 



EARNEST, SELF-DEXYIXG, AND UNOSTENTATIOUS PATRIOTISM, 



THE AUTHOR. 



Caldwell, St. Paul's River, 
August 2, 1865. 



Di 



Sir 



We have the honor to forward to you the following resolutions, 
passed at the meeting of the citizens of Lower Caldwell, on the first instant, 
before which you kindly repeated your Address, delivered at Monrovia 
on the 26th of July, the National day. 
On motion, it was unanimously 

Hesolved, That the thanks of the meeting be tendered to Hon. Edward 
W. Blyden, for the repetition of his very able and instructive Address. 

jResolved, That, the meeting being convinced that a diffusion of the 
patriotic sentiments of the Address is calculated to do great good, a com- 
mittee of three be appointed, to solicit a copy of it for publication. 
Hoping that you will comply with the request of the meeting. 
We remain, respectfully 3'ours, 

Colonel Isaac Lawrence, ^ 
Capt. Samuel S. Powers, >- Committee. 
Hon. H. W. Johnson, J 

To the Hon. Edward W. Blyden, " 

Secretary of State, Monrovia. 



ADDRESS. 



To-day we celebrate the eighteentli anniversary of 
the Independence of Liberia. We are entering upon 
the nineteenth year of our national career. Amid vari- 
ous discouragements and difficulties, joys and sorrovrs — 
in sunshine and shadow — we have held on our way. 
AVe are laying the foundations of emj^ire on this coast. 
We are inaugurating what others must take up and 
continue. With all our failings and deficiencies, we 
are obviously the agents in the hand of the great Ruler 
in doing an important work. Well, how should the 
day be spent ? 

If we had thoroughly solved the problem to ^^hicli 
we are committed ; if we had firmly established a na- 
tion; if we had fairly demonstrated our capacity to 
achieve and maintain sovereignty and independence ; 
if the mass of our people had risen to the dignity of 
superior and cultivated life ; if we had exalted the gen- 
eral tone and character of the tribes around us ; if we 
were united by the sympathy of one feeling and of one 
interest ; if all asperity and bitterness and ignorant 
jealousies were unknown among us, and we lived in the 
warmth and glow of one common cordiality ; if, supe- 
rior to local or individual prejudices, we were combin- 
ing our energies and our means for the benefit of the 
whole country ; if we were daily developing a stronger 



attacliment to the cause of race, and a more determined 
zeal for the upbuilding of an African nationality ; if we 
had effectually silenced the cavils of adversaries ; then 
we miglit devote the day to unbounded festivity ; then 
we could afford to impose no check upon our feelings 
of gladness and joy. But when we review the years 
during which we have been numbered among the na- 
tions, and see how far behind we are in all the elements 
of abiding pros]3erity and usefulness ; how^ little we 
have done for the cause of Africa's regeneration ; how 
small the quota we have contributed to the comfort 
and liappiness of mankind ; this should be to us a day 
of earnest and solemn though tfulness, as well as of joy- 
ous demonstrations. 

The question is still agitated : "Is Liberia a perma- 
ment fact, or will it, after all, prove a failure ?" This 
is a time when, in the opinion of some, both citizens 
and foreigners, a serious crisis has arrived in the history 
of Liberia. I propose, therefore, to recall your attention 

to THE ORIGITT OF THE KePUBLIC OF LiBERIA, AND TO 
SOME OF THE DANGERS AVIIICII TIIRExiTEN OUR NATIONAL 
EXISTENCE. 

IN^owthat it has ceased to be fashionable or necessary 
on the part of the friends of Liberia to magnify her 
virtues ; and on the part of her enemies it has become 
useless to exaggerate her failings ; and when it must 
be evident to every one who has, for the last ten years, 
watched the current of Liberian history that her suc- 
cess rests upon a very different foundation from that 
furnished by the panegyrics of her friends abroad, and 
that her progress can not be impeded by any obstacles 
thrown into her way by her enemies, it is rendered pos- 
sible to take a candid view of ourselves, without, as 
some have heretofore supposed, endangering our exist- 



OUR ORIGIN", DAGGERS, AXD DUTIES. 7 

ence. We can afford to look at a true picture of our- 
selves without experiencing, it is to be hoped, any other 
feelino^ than one of stimulation to effort. 

The foundation of Liberia was laid under circum. 
stances peculiar in the history of the world. The emi- 
grants were nrged to these shores by motives far dif- 
ferent from those which led to the foundino* of other 
colonies. They were not a restless jDCople, who, finding 
their advancement to wealth and honors in their native 
country too slow for their ambitious and enterprising 
minds, resolved to accelerate their dilatory fortunes be- 
neath a foreign sky. They were not persons who had 
once been in a condition of ojDulence and splendor, and 
who, having fallen by luxury and extravagance into 
j)enury and disrepute, sought new scenes to repair their 
shattered fortunes. They were not ^politicians adhering 
to some new pnnci23le in politics deemed by them all- 
important, and seeking some new field for its untram- 
meled exercise and fair development. They were not 
the victims of religious persecution fieeing from the 
horrors of an enthralled conscience. No, Had they 
belonged to any of these classes, they might, perhaps, 
have contented themselves mth cultivating small farms 
and reaping slow gains ; they might have taken fresh 
courage, and, by patient industry, restored measurably 
their dilapidated fortunes ; they might have changed 
their political or theological views, rather than brave 
the dangers and undergo the privations of founding a 
home, and residing in a country proverbial for its un- 
healthy and dangerous climate. But they belonged to 
none of these classes. They were a peculiar people. 
They were those who themselves or wliose ancestors 
had been, in the providence of God, suftered to be car- 
ried away from heathenism into slavery among a civil- 



8 OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

ized and Cliristian people ; and who, from the degra- 
dation necessarily attached in all countries to those in 
any way related to slaves, could not rise. The force of 
circumstances over which they had no control kept 
them down — ^liopelessly down. They felt the depres- 
sion ; they saw its causes. They felt the deteriorating 
effects of these causes upon their minds and the minds 
of their children. And they found that it was useless 
to contend against these unfavorable influences. They 
saw clearly that to remain in that land and contend 
against what they could have no reasonable hope of 
overcoming, would be no more than " beating the air." 
They, therefore, concluded that it would be wisdom in 
them, if they desired to possess a home for themselves 
and their children, where they might enjoy those rights 
and immunities which their neighbors enjoyed, to direct 
their attention to some other scene. Earnestly did 
they look abroad for some " asylum from the deep de- 
gradation." At length the West Coast of Africa was 
fixed u]3on as offering the greatest inducement for the 
settlement of Africans. They left the land of their 
birth, forsook the scenes and associations of their child- 
hood, and came, with hearts heavy and distressed, to 
this far-off and barbarous shore — -forced^ by irresistible 
circumstances, from their native country in their pov- 
erty and ignorance, to seek a home where to be of Af 
rican descent would involve no disgrace. 

They came, having seen their operations, but never 
having studied or learned the moral and political prin- 
ciples which prevailed in their native land. They came 
then to found a home with nothing more to depend 
upon than the capabilities of memory to recall what they 
had seen and heard. They came to imitate words and 
actions, for they could not practice and inculcate prin- 



OUR OEIGIX, DA3^GEBS, AND DUTIES. 9 

ciples. Their knowledge, sucli as it was, consisted of 
vacfue cfeneralities. 

And then they had no brilliant ancestry fi'om whose 
magnificent achievements they could gather insjjira- 
tion. All the past was dark to them. Xo sacred bard 
snng to them of the exploits of their fathers. There 
mav have been ^reat men in their ancesti^al land to 
whick, as perfect strangers, they were now returning ; 
illustrious deeds may have been performed ; but alas I 
no poet had recorded them, Vixere fortes ante Aga- 
memnona,^ etc.* 

^' In rain the chiefs, the sage's pride ; 
They had no poet, and they died ; 
In rain ther planned, in rain they bled ; 
They had no poet, and are dead.'^f 

Such were the people who came to establish Liberia ; 
such the circumstances under which Liberia was 
founded. 

How different from these were the circumstances under 
which other colonies were founded ! The colonies that 
went out from Phenicia, and planted the foundations 
of empu*e on the shores of the Mediterranean, did not 
consist of the ignorant and degraded of Phenicia Xo ; 
they were among the noblest of their native land. They 
were PJienicians ; had drunk deeply of the spiiit of 
Phenicia ; had been moulded as to their views and prin- 
ciples in Phenician mould : they, therefore, transfen*ed 
the principles and feelings of the mother country at 
once to the new lands where they took up their abode ; 
and soon Carthage arose, rivaling Rome, the " mistress 
of the world." "The colonies that went out from 
Greece to occufiy the maritime regions of Asia Minor, 
cairied with them the love of the ai-ts, of literatm-e, and 

• Horace, lib. IV. Ode 9. f Pope. 



10 OUE OEIGIN", DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

of liberty, wHcli distinguisLed Corintli and Athens ; 
and Ionia became merely a reflected image of what At- 
tica and Achaia and Argolis had been." 

The colonists who landed at Plymouth Kock, at Sa- 
lem, at Boston — who settled Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
Virginia, and South-Carolina, were not the degraded 
of Europe. Ko ; they were among the best of that 
country. The foundation of the United States was laid 
by Aristocrats, Puritans, Quakers,CaYaliers, and Church, 
men. They carried over from Europe books, and built 
churches and founded colleges almost simultaneously. 
What nation would not now be proud of so distin- 
guished an ancestry ? 

For the first twenty-five years of their residence in 
this country, the j)eople of Liberia had no independent 
national existence. The American Colonization So- 
ciety, which founded the colony, held political power 
over the people ; appointed, from time to time, white 
agents to reside among them as governors ; suggested, 
formed, or sanctioned such laws as governed them ; paid 
their government officers ; erected their public build- 
ings, and constructed their public works; leaving to 
the people no other care than that of educing from the 
soil or other sources their own private living, and of 
protecting themselves against the onsets of their savage 
neighbors. Under such, circumstances, it was not likely 
that a people of the character we have described above 
would form those habits of thoughtful ness and indus- 
try, cultivate that 'spirit of freedom and independence, 
or acquire that energy, determination, and ability to 
surmount difficulties, so essential to national growth 
and prosperity. By the unreserved supply of all their 
natural wants by foreigners, their attention was ab. 
stracted from the public interests, and confined within 



11 

the narroT^' spliere of their own personal and domestic 
concerns. They saw that the government was in oper- 
tion without theii* assistance, and felt satisfied to enjoy 
untroubled repose. Xo opportunity was afforded for 
the development of that largeheartedness and public 
spuit which is the life of nascent communities. 

But as the territory of Liberia increased by purchase 
of land from the natives, questions arose which inter- 
fered with the political tranquillity of the colonists — 
differences arose between Liberians and foreigners, 
which could be adjusted only by a convention of sov- 
ereign powers. The colony, having no connection with 
any indej^endent government, was obliged to submit to 
numerous insults and imjDositions offered by foreigners,. 
Avho, aware of the peculiar and defenseless condition 
of the countrv, took all the advantag-e which circum- 
stances enabled them to take. To the Liberians, theii^ 
there remained only the alternative of submitting to 
the humiliating treatment or of ]3nttmg themselves in 
a position to stop it. The latter the}' could do only by 
assuming an independent form of government. The 
matter was, for some time, earnestly discussed by the 
people. Among the leading men there was but one 
opinion as to the necessity of the assumption of sover- 
eign rights. And outrages perpetrated uj^on Liberian 
merchants just about that time, for which no redress 
could be obtained, hastened the decisive step. The 
people, by their representatives, met in convention to 
consider this important matter, and, in thirty days pre- 
sented to the world a Constitution and a Declaration 
of Independence. Liberia was declared to l)e " a free, 
sovereign, and independent State." 

Every nation and every people has ii^ peculiar work 
to perform, and each for itself must find out the work 



12 

to be done and the best metliods and inBtrumentalities 
of prosecuting it. Any one who has studied the his- 
tory of nations, whether ancient or modern, cannot fail 
to perceive that there has never been an unchanging 
uniformity, but change and variety, according to cir- 
cumstances, has characterized them. And even where 
one community has gone forth from another, all the 
peculiarities of the parent country have not been re- 
tained. New views have been formed and new princi- 
ples have developed themselves from the very novelty 
of the circumstances and relations in which the people 
have been placed. 

In the political history of Liberia, however, there has 
been no striking novelty, nothing remarkable or j)ecu- 
liar. In the absence of regular educational training, or 
of large experience and practice in political matters, the 
people have not been able to elaborate any system adapt- 
ed to their own peculiar condition and circumstances. 
Compelled to depend for their information almost whol- 
ly upon the example of the United States and other ad 
vanced countries, they have followed, with unvarying 
step, most of their practices, without possessing the ma- 
ture wisdom to detect, or the boldness to repudiate, 
such features in the political system of those countries 
as conflict with the prosperity of a rising community. 

The people of Liberia and their fathers were, for the 
most part, born and nursed under rej^ublicanism ; a re- 
publicanism, it is true, which, in its influence upon them 
as a people, was anomalous. They know, experiment- 
ally, no other form of government. All the associations 
of their childhood and youth, social, political, and reli- 
gious, are republican. They have seen the workings 
of republicanism, and they have felt its power. They 
know its advantages, they know its disadvantages; 



OUR ORIGIN-, DANGERS, AXD DUTIES. 13 

tliey know its uses, tliey know its abuses. For tliem, 
therefore, a people that must act from imitation, with, 
out the ability to be, in any great degree, original, a 
republican is the best, the only form of government. 
The history and traditions of the people point to this 
form. Indeed, any attempt to have organized a differ- 
ent form would have been useless and absurd. 

But circumstances, as I have just shown, forced us 
rather suddenly into an independent position. What 
other nations have achieved only after years and years 
of trial, we effected within a very brief period ; and, 
consequently, we see among us all the fruits of a hasty 
develo23ment. All peoples need to pass through a pe- 
riod of discipline and pupilage before they can really 
enjoy and manage liberty and indejDendence. The 
United States, after which we have modeled our gov- 
ernment, had one hundred and fifty years of colonial 
discipline and subordination. National character is a 
thing of slow formation. Nations advance by minute 
and inapj)reciable gradations. They seldom reach so- 
lidity and greatness by rapid transition. Like children, 
they require the training of arbitrary rules and the re- 
straints of arbitrary regulations before they are fitted 
for the freedom and guidance of j)rinciples. They must 
first have tutors, guardians, and masters before they 
are fitted to enjoy the liberty of choice and action. 
And Ave can scarcely find a nation of any respectabil- 
ity and power which was not brought to social and po- 
litical order by protracted subjection to other nations. 
Was not this the discipline to which God subjected 
his own chosen nation, the Jews. 

But we were suddenly ushered into liberty and inde- 
pendence. Our government was hurriedly formed ; and 
now, after some years' exjierience, we see the deficien 



14 OUli OEIGIN, DANGEES, AND DUTIES. 

cies of our organization. We liave all the responsibili- 
ties of men without having passed through the pre- 
paration of childhood ; and hence we see among the peo- 
ple generally all that impatience under whatever would 
curb their own arbitrary will, which we see in spoiled 
children. They are willing to submit to nothing which 
opposes their transient passion or caprice. Their own 
way they must have, which is often fatal alike to dig- 
nity, to justice, and to sound and steady policy. And 
we could wish that this disposition to follow their own 
arbitrary volition were confined to the people in irre- 
sponsible gatherings. We could wish that these vacil- 
lating fancies and selfish impulses did not often infest 
assemblies among us of high and grave responsibility ! 

And we are almost powerless to remedy these things. 
It is exceedingly clifiicult to get the masses to surrender 
any portion of what they conceive to be their rights 
and privileges. It is almost impossible to get them in- 
terested in abstract subjects. They care for nothing 
that does not obviously or very immediately aifect their 
own ]3ersonal and particular interests. . To declamations 
concerning personal rights and the privilege of every 
man to fill the highest position, they are abundantly 
sensitive, because these subjects ofi^er a most visible and 
quickly-felt connection with their interests. And hence 
it is, that democracy, in its rampant form, will ever, or 
for a very long time, in Liberia, draw a certain portion 
of respect and reverence around it ; and most vocifer- 
ous testimony of abhorrence will always be heard against 
every thing that may be classed under the general de- 
signation of anti-republicanism. 

It is in vain that we point to the evils which our 
way of holding to republicanism brings upon the coun- 
try ; how the frequency of elections and the violence of 



OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 15 

party spirit break up tlie peace and enjoyment and 
even virtue of the country ; that if these thiugs w^ere 
discontinued, there would "be a wonderful augmentation 
of the political, social, and industrial good of the com- 
munity. The benefits and advantages which we point 
out are remote, and the people remain unaffected or are 
roused to antagonism. On the other hand, they are 
told of the reasonableness and justice of placing the 
same rights and privileges within the reach of all ; of 
the danger of intrusting power too long to any one 
man. The idea of equality is impressed upon them ; 
and, yielding to the pleasurable illusions under which 
they are placed, they are prepared to listen, with the 
most complacent toleration, to those who go to them 
with such teachings ; while the voice of execration is 
raised against every thing that seems to be in opposi- 
tion to the lessons of liberty which they have learned. 

I would not say a word liere to-day against a correct 
republicanism. I believe that this craving in men for 
some deep and eternal principle of free, equal, and fra- 
ternal government is an inspiration from above ; but 
whether this principle is fully attainable under the 
present conditions of humanity — and especially among 
a youthful, untrained people like ourselves — is another 
question. 

We have every thing too common among us. On 
account of the widespread and leveling equality which 
we are taught is our birthright, much, if not all, the 
reverence due to our rulers is taken away. There is 
not that feeling of subordination in the people which 
is necessary for wholesome growth and salutary prog- 
ress. And if there be no modification of our laws so 
as to remedy this evil, the time is not far distant when 
iicrimonious conflicts will not be confined to times of 



16 OUR OEIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

election ; but law will be made a secondary tiling, and 
popular violence and prejudice will be paramount. 
Let those then who know better endeavor to instill 
into the masses the apostolic principle : " Let every soul 
be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power 
but of God." 

We find in the history of all nations that reverence 
and awe for superior power in the state have been the 
most efficient instrument in leadino; them from barbar- 
ism to civilization — in teaching them civil and social 
order. It w^as thus that God himself taught his an- 
cient people, the Jews. He gave them Moses, with his 
mystei'ious rod. When imparting the law which was 
to govern Israel, he spoke to Moses in a thick cloudy 
whilst the cloud sent forth thunder and lightning. 
And we find a similar method adopted by the ancient 
heathen legislators. " Minos, the legislator of the Ore. 
tans, j^retended ta have, every nine years, communions 
with Jupiter in a cavern. Lycurgus, the legislator of 
the Lacedaemonians, raised his influence by an oracle 
of Apollo. Numa, Rome's second king, supported his 
authority by a feigned intercourse with the nymph 
Egeria, who he said instructed him in a grotto near 
her fountain. Zamolxis, the lawgiver of the Getae, as- 
cribed his wisdom to Vesta. Odin carried constantly 
with him the embalmed head of Mimez, to whom he im- 
l^uted oracular inspirations. Manko-Kopak spread the 
belief that he descended from the sun, in order to en- 
lighten Peru's people. Mohammed listened to the wis- 
dom, which his dove whispered into his ear. Sertorius, 
in Lusitania, followed the secret suggestions of his 
hind."'"* All these extraordinary men understood well 

* Stollberg's History of Religion, (ii. p. 58,) quoted by Kalisch. 



OUK OEIGIX, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 17 

that a certain mysterious autliority was needed to train 
men up to order and regularity. 

Do we not see tlie same principle in operation among 
tlie natives around us ? Is it not the influence of the 
" devil-bush" — their sacred grove — or Oro, or some other 
superstition, around which more or less of mystery 
gathers, that keeps in such complete subordination the 
countless numbers of unenlightened men on this con- 
tinent ? The traveler in Europe sees, even to this day, 
relics of the ancient paraj)hernalia, the " pomp and cir- 
cumstance" by which the masses were trained into rever- 
ence for their rulers. 

And is it not thus that God rules the world ? Does 
He not 

" move in a mysterious way, 

His wonders to perform" ? 

With all the boasted triumphs of science, there is still 
helpless ignorance in man. He has to be guided by 
the day and by the hour. In many things there seems 
to be an astounding; arbitrariness ; but man is oblig-ed 
to be mute. He is not allowed to vote on matters even 
that immediately concern himself, his country, or his 
race. He sees in the physical world things that seem 
unwise and injurious, but he is obliged to submit — 
whole tracts of country rendered insalubrious and 
fetid by extensive marshes and swamj)s. He sees 
in certain portions of the earth thousands of miles 
given up to barren sands. In the moral world he finds 
that some portions are blessed ^vith all the elevating 
and enlightening influences — witli the reviving j^jres- 
ence of literature and the arts ; while others, entirely 
un visited by the quickening power of knowledge, re- 
main from age to age in the condition of moral wastes, 
barren as the Sahara, or rife only with weeds and 

2 



18 ODE ORIGIN, DANGEES, AND DUTIES, 

thorns. He cannot tell by what law these things are 
arranged, much less can he procure its repeal. He is 
obliged to content himself with the melancholy reverie 
of the poet : 

" Full many a gem of purest ray serene 

The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; 
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its fragrance on the desert air." 

Thus mysteriously has the divine Monarch chosen to 
govern this world. Should we not in Liberia endea- 
vor, in some little measure, to follow the method he 
has indicated ? If we do not, we shall linger in the 
road to national independence and respectability. 

But not only do we not follow this method, but we 
even reverse and vulgarize the idea of republicanism, 
which we profess to have adopted. Republicanism es- 
tablishes a political equality — that is to say, abolishes 
all classes, ranks, castes — conferring upon all citizens 
the enjoyment of unlimited liberty and full scope for 
the development of all their powers. In this kind of 
government, no barrier excludes the poorest from ris- 
ing, by the power of intellect and industry, to the high- 
est position ; the idea being, that merit should be duly 
rewarded in whomsoever exhibited. But, as I have 
said, we have reversed the principle. We have put 
Because in the place of A ItJiougJi. "We seem to hold 
that men should occupy high and responsible places 
hecause they are poor and in humble circumstances. 
With us the argument seems to be, that the Abraham 
Lincolns and Andrew Johnsons should be raised to the 
highest authority hecause they are rail-splitters and tail- 
ors. But that is not the idea. The idea in which we 
should glory is not that men are made rulers and ex- 
alted to the highest dignity hecause they belong to the 



19 

humbler classes, but rather that, altliougli belonging to 
the humbler classes, they may^de elevated if they man- 
ifest talent and prove meritorious. 

A correct republicanism does not claim that all men 
are intellectually and morally equal ; on the contrary, 
it teaches that only men of merit should be elevated, 
and in proportion to their merit. But all men have 
not merit, nor do those who have, possess it in the same 
degree — hence inequality ; and a true republicanism is 
discriminating. The journeymen who worked in the 
shop with Andrew Johnson have not been heard of — 
and why not, if Johnson was raised hecause he was a 
tailor ; they were tailors as well as he ; but it happens 
that they were tailors, and nothing more. 
' To talk of all men being in every resjDect equal, is 
simply to indulge in an idle dream. But, despite all 
theory and speculation, nature will have its way. "We 
must be content for those to rise whom nature has 
gifted. Envy and jealousy are foolish things A man 
will go to the place for which his natural force; fits him. 
Because I or my relative cannot achieve what another 
can, must I, therefore, envy that other and try to pull 
him down ? If Lord Derby's language be correct, such 
a course is " w^orse than a crime — a blunder."'''* Would 
it not be wiser in me to endeavor to dischargee faith- 
fully my own duty in the sphere to which it has 
pleased God to call me? God calls men to their 
ability and station in life. No man can determine liis 
own force of mind. He may by industry and |)erse- 
verance greatly improve its scope and capacity ; but 
he can no more determine its original, native bent, 
than he can determine his own stature. It is a " gross 

* Speech in the House of Lords, ou the assassination of Prcsidcni Lincoln 
May 1, 1865. 



20 

blunder," then, to fret and worry about another's gifts 
and talents, and fail to improve our own. This is very 
important for us to bear in mind in Liberia ; for we 
are all sons of Zebedee, all anxious to sit some on the 
right, and others on the left of majesty. 

The present condition of affairs in Liberia seems to 
force upon ns the duty of revising a defective Constitu- 
tion. An experience of eighteen years has developed 
to us the errors which are detrimental to our national 
character, and endangering to the perpetuity of our 
institutions. We are convinced that, socially, politi- 
cally, and religiously, we cannot long endure at the 
vcurrent rate. But while this is the case, still, as long 
as the laws continue what they are, they are binding 
upon us. We must not consent to take lessons in 
morals from those who teach that laws may be set 
aside, whenever it suits our convenience to do so. 
There may be laws which our judgment may condemn, 
against which our feelings may revolt ; but until they 
are repealed or annulled in the legal way, we are 
bound to respect and obey them. 

Our Constitution needs various amendments. It is 
of very great importance that the utmost care should 
be exercised in interfering with the fundamental law" 
of the land ; but w^e must not attach to it such myste- 
rious and unapproachable sacredness as to imagine that 
it must not be interfered with at all, even when cir- 
cumstances plainly reveal to us the necessity of such 
interference. The Constitution is only a written docu- 
ment, and, like all written documents — especially those 
written under the circumstances to which I have ad- 
verted — it has many errors and omissions. It becomes 
us, then, who long for the prosperity of our country 
-calmly and deliberately to examine and consider such 



OUR ORIGIX, DAGGERS, AXD DUTIES. 21 

defects as may exist in that most important paper, and 
set ourselves to the work of remedying tliem to the 
best of our ability. It is the people's Constitution, and 
it is the work of the peoj^le to coiTect its deficiencies. 

The first point to which I would call your attention 
as needino: amendment, is that relating; to the Presiden- 
tial term of office. I believe that most of the thinking 
men in Liberia agree that the President should be 
elected for a longer term than two years. My own 
opinion is, that the chief magistrate should be elected 
for a term of six or eight years, and not be immediately 
reeligible. If we could bring to pass such an amend- 
ment — electino^ the President for a lono:er term, and 
forbiddino^ his immediate reelection — then we should 
doubtless get Presidents who, during their terms, 
would devote their attention to statesmanship — to 
such measures as pertain to the public weal, and not 
to electioneering expedients ; and the country would 
be delivered from the frequent recurrence of convulsing 
political conflicts. In all cases where reelection is 
possible, the magistrate in office is placed in the po- 
sition of a candidate. He is tempted, especially as his 
term of office draws near its end, to direct his adminis- 
tration mainly ^vith a view to secure popular favor. 
Thus instead of statesmen we have electioneerers as 
presidents. In many of the ancient commonwealths 
reelection was forbidden ; in Achaia, the general could 
not serve for two successive years ; at Rome, it was at 
no time lawful for the same man to be consul for two 
years together, and at one time it was forbidden for 
a man who had once been consul ever to be consul 



as^am. ■ 



* Xatlonal Review, (London,) Xovcmbcr, 1S64. 



22 OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES 

A second amendment needed in our Constitution, is 
one wliicli shall involve the rescinding of the clause 
conferring upon the President the power of dismissing 
government emjployes indiscriminately, at his joleasure. 
There are some offices that ought to be subject to his 
control, but they are only a few. The practice of dis- 
missing all officials at every change of government is a 
most prolific source of mischief. This practice did not 
prevail in the United States government when it was 
as youthful as we are. " U23 to the time of General 
Jackson, in 1829, all the government employes^ civil 
and military, with a very few specified exceptions, held 
office, as in Eugland, during life and good behavior; 
were never removed for their political opinions, and 
never changed with any change of administration. By 
the Constitution, the control over all these offices, as 
well as the appointment to them, was vested in the 
chief executive, the sanction of the Senate being re 
quired in only a few cases; but it is worthy of remark 
that this absolute power over the government em- 
ployes was only conferred upon the President after 
long discussion, and by a very narrow majority. The 
clause affirming it only passed the Senate by the casting 
vote of the vice-president ; and in the long debates that 
it gave rise to, the idea that any chief of the State could 
so far disgrace himself and damage the community as 
to abuse the power conferred for personal or election- 
eering purposes, was scouted as an insult and a chi- 
mera. Nor was it abused until the advent of General 
Jackson, who broached the doctrine that " to the vic- 
tors belong the spoils." During Washington's eight 
years of administration, he only removed nine persons 
from office ; one, a foreign minister, at the instance of 
the French Directory; the other eight for cause as- 



23 

signed. Politics had nothing to do with any of the 
cases. Adams also removed nine subordinate officers, 
but none for political reasons. Jefferson removed 
tliirty-nine^ but, as he solemnly declared, and was ready 
to prove, not one of them because their political ojDin- 
ions differed from his own. Madison made five remov- 
als ; Monroe, none / John Quincy Adams, only two. 
But General Jackson was no sooner inaugurated than 
he dismissed from office nearly every man wlio Tiad 
opposed Mm, or whose friends had voted for his oppo- 
nent., and replaced them hy partisans of his own. The 
number thus removed was variously stated ; his ene- 
mies mentioned two thousand ; his friends admitted six 
hundred and ninety. Chief Justice Story specifies eight 
in the diplomatic corps ; thirty-six in the executive de- 
partment; one hundred and ninety in other civil 
departments, besides four hundred and ninety-one post- 
masters." 

" It is impossible to exaggerate the ruinous results 
which must flow from such a course of proceeding — a 
course which, once inaugurated, must almost necessa- 
rily be continued, since its adoption by one party or 
one President compels its imitation by the antagonistic 
faction, as a measure at once of justice and of self-de- 
fense. Accordingly, ever since the time of Jackson, 
the plan of wholesale removals has been pursued in 
the United States, and is now the common practice. 
At each presidential election all the places in the gift 
of the government, from the highest to the lowest, 
change hands. The consequences are manifold and 
all-mischievous. First., few men can obtain any skill 
or experience in their offices, and the official capacity 
of the civil service must be deplorably impaired. Se. 
condly^ every man, knowing that he has only a four 



24 OUR OEIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

years', or, at most, and by every exertion, an eight 
years' tenure of office, will be inclined to ^ featlier his 
nest ' as fast and as daringly as he can. Thirdly^ it ren- 
ders it impossible for men of intelligence, ability, and 
virtue, v^ho wish for a reasonable permanence and a 
decent independence, to become servants of the state. 
Office necessarily falls into the hands of a very third- 
rate class of men. One American writer sums the mat- 
ter up by the assertion that, in the year of our Lord 
1859, the fact of a man's holding (removable) office 
under the United States government, is presumptive 
evidence that he is one of three characters, namely, an 
adventurer, an incompetent person, or a scoundrel."* 

Another mistake in our Constitution and laws is the 
arrangement which causes several months to elapse be- 
tween the election of the President and his inaugura- 
tion — from May to January — which gives his prede- 
decessor, if he be of an opposing party, a long time 
during which to carry out his party views. We have 
had in the United States, recently, a serious illustration 
of the evil growing out of such an arrangement ; 
though there the interval between the election and the 
inauguration is much shorter than with us. As soon 
as the result of the election of 1860 was ascertained, 
putting the Republican party in power, the Southern- 
ers in office at "Washington, of secession tendencies, de- 
liberately and treacherously employed all the resources 
of their official position to prepare the way for seces- 
sion. Mr. Buchanan and his ministers had always 
been attached to the party of the South, and put forth 
no decisive effort against it. It is known that the 
Southern officials purjoosely distributed the fleet of the 

* National Review^ April, 1861. 



25 

Union in distant countries, placed stores of artillery 
where Soutliern rebels could easily take tliem, pur- 
posely disorganized the Federal army. They took care 
that Mr. Lincoln, when he reached the White House, 
should find the treasury empty, the arsenal disarmed, 
or under the control of enemies, and all important posts 
and strongholds in hostile hands. By the discreet ar- 
rano-ement of the Constitution, the whole executive 
influence and the whole military force were placed in 
the hands of the dissatisfied minority."^'" 

Our arrangement is still more alarmingly defective, 
for, instead of four months, as in the United State, we 
allow fully eight months to the dissentient minority to 
carry out their purposes. This is a defect that calls 
loudly for immediate remedy. 

I bring these things before you to-day, fellow-citi- 
zens, for your solemn and serious consideration. But 
I am afraid, as I have already intimated, that we are 
helplessly and almost hopelessly bound to our first 
mistakes. It is seldom that a democracy voluntarily 
retraces its steps, or rectifies its own errors ; and the 
reason is, that to bring about change, appeal must be 
made to the people, and the people, as we have 
already stated, cannot readily be made to see what 
their real interests are. They are jealous of every 
proposed change, looking upon it as an eifort to restrict 
their power and to curtail the excesses of their liberty. 

But the changes to which I have referred are obvi- 
ously needed. If we make them, we shall advance in 
comfort and prosperity at home, and be respected 
abroad ; if we do not make them, we shall be blighted 

* See Bancroft's Oration on Lincoln, New-York, April, 1865, and Xational lia- 
vicio, 1861. 



26 

by frequent social and political disturbances, and con- 
tinued deterioration. 

These changes, as I have said, depend upon the will 
of the people ; but we must remember that the people 
cannot be brow-beaten into them. They have to be 
reasoned with and convinced by patient and persever- 
ing argument. The enterprise of persuading and con- 
vincing them deserves the utmost exertion of true 
patriots. The reward with which such efforts will be 
crowned is no less than the emancipation of the body 
politic from fatally injurious influences, and the intro- 
duction among us of salutary conditions of national 
existence, under which we may go on prospering and 
to j)rosper. As our population increases, Liberia will 
become a good deal more difficult to manage, unless 
those who are informed bestir themselves to diffuse 
information among the people. When we were a much 
younger and smaller people, our success depended 
greatly upon the individual character of the rulers, and 
not so much upon the Constitution and influences of 
society; but now that we have come forward before 
the world, and assumed so important a position as an 
independent nation, having numerous treaties with for- 
eign nations, receiving and accrediting diplomatic offi- 
cers, it becomes the people to be generally informed, 
to reflect upon their position. The resources, intellect- 
ual and moral, of the individual citizen are called into 
requisition. Our success now depends upon the virtue 
and vigor of the people, and upon no one man or set 
of men. And we must bear in mind that a large num- 
ber of our people have not yet fully comprehended 
their position in this country. The fact cannot be dis- 
guised that many were brought to these shores by the 
*'love of liberty," in its most ordinary acceptation. 



27 

Their desire to emigrate to this country did not arise 
from a love of independence — it did not spring from 
an earnest lono^ing; for the frmctions of sellVovernment , 
but merely from a vague and' uneasy desire to be freed 
from certain physical restraints and proscriptions in 
the land of their birth. These people have to be 
taught. Correct lessons of freedom must be imparted 
to them. They should be impressed v^ith a sense of 
personal obligation to the country, and of individual 
responsibility ; otherwise they will be an insurmounta- 
ble stumbling-block in the way of all national advance- 
ment and all enlio-htened civilization. 

I know that in the case of many who are really 
interested in the prosperity of the country, and in 
properly instinicting the masses, there is a reluctance to 
go among them, on account of the unworthy motives 
which are so readily assigned ; but this reluctance must 
be overcome by a sense of duty ; and, though at every 
step there is a feeling of oppression, we are bound to 
persevere in doing that whicli we believe to be for the 
good of the country. 

Now there are evidently two classes of citizens in 
Liberia. One, in intelligence and sentiment, is, per- 
haps, above the other. But while the one ^vith its 
high-wrought delicacy and sensitiveness is lamenting 
over the downward tendency of things, the other is 
putting forth every possible exertion to promote those 
ends which, in its estimation, are for the welfare of the 
country. The one sits brooding in indolence, in vision- 
ary gloom over the hopeless departure of the days of 
yore ; the other steps abroad and uses its influence in 
country and in town, to tarn the current "of affairs into 
the channel whicli it conceives to be desirable. The 
one is capricious and spasmodic ; the other is vigilant 



28 OUE ORIGIN, DANGEES, AND DUTIES. 

and unceasingly active. The one deliglits in conceiv- 
ing plans ; the other labors to carry its purposes into 
execution. The one is always doleful in its prophecies 
as to the country's future, whenever things do not go 
exactly to suit it ; the other is cheerful and buoyant in 
its feelings, and always hopeful in its expressions. 

Now it is not difficult to see which of these classes 
will be more influential in the country. A man may 
possess the wisdom of Solon, he may have as many 
eyes as Argus, or as many arms as Briareus, what will 
it all avail if he never put forth any exertion ? What 
avails his correctness of sentiment, his soundness of 
views, if it never go out into action — if it never urge 
him to the accomplishment of any act fbr the good of 
his country — if, notwithstanding all his fine impres- 
sions, he shrink from activity, from fatigue, from exer- 
tion to disseminate his views ? 

No : we shall never be able to conduct the aflPairs of 
this country as they should be conducted until more 
general interest is felt in keeping the body of the peo- 
ple properly informed. They must be visited by the 
more enlightened. The true condition of the country 
must be represented to them. Their love of country 
must be awakened. They must be made to feel that 
their assistance and cooperation is required in the work' 
of erecting this nationality. This is the duty of us alL 
If we accept democracy, we must accept it with these 
inconveniences. If men, holding what they regard as 
correct views, do not trouble themselves to set them 
before the people, they must not be surprised to find 
the field occupied and cultivated by others, who, if less 
orthodox, are" more vigilant, active, and persevering. 
We must not be content to stand oflp and oppose, or 
chill with indifference proposed reforms, and after they 



OUE OEIGLS". DANGERS, AXD DUTIES. 29 

are accomplished then gladly accept tliem. We must 
take pai-t in tlie strife and straggle. It may he tliat 
the habits of some of ns may disquali^' us for this 
work. We may have no time for it. We may not 
know how to demean om*selves in snch business ; our 
want of practice and experience may disable us for the 
work of managing visitations among the people. But 
if this foi-m of government is to be perpetuated by us, 
we must try to acquire the requisite habits. We 
should, each in his own sphere, qualify ourselves for a 
judicious, and discriminating, and enlightening inter- 
comse with the people. And so long as this is not 
done by us, we should be veiy careful how we utter 
oui' vehement condemnation against those who perform 
this work to the best of their ability. For my own 
part, I cannot condemn this practice in the abstract. 
We cannot afford to lose this spiiit in Liberia. There 
is ab-eady too little of it ; and what we see forms too 
gratifying and refreshing an exception to that general 
selfishness and isolation which pervades our communi- 
ties for me to say one word against it ; on the contraiy, 
I conceive that it would be cold-blooded inappreciation 
for me to withhold from such a spirit and temjDer the 
tiibute of my respect and hearty concuiTenee. 

What I condemn and deprecate — and what we must 
all condemn and deprecate — is that mean and con- 
temptible practice of going among the masses for the 
pui'pose of intentionally misrepresenting the doings or 
views of an opposing party. I think that this practice 
is the usual resource of the idle and vicious. ^Mien- 
ever I hear of any one's doing this, if he is a fanner, I 
conclude that he is unthi'ifty and indolent ; if he is a 
mechanic, that he is not skillful in his trade ; if a mer- 
chant, thai he is not respectable in his business ; if he 



80 OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTEIS. 

can afford to live without work, that he is not pos- 
sessed of much dignity of mind or of character. 

Yes, we must condemn that frivolous and thought- 
less habit of indulging in inflammatory remarks, 
whether in public or private^ against the authorities. 
I say frivolous and thoughtless habit, because the men 
who make such remarks have no idea whatever of car- 
rying them out ; but yet they have their effect for evil. 
Some poor excitable individual may be listening, who 
may carry out in action what these careless babblers 
intend to end only in words, but to which, from a want 
of cautious and reflecting prudence, they give a ficti- 
tious weight. " The tongue," we are told, " is an un- 
ruly evil, full of deadly poison^ The mischief which 
the tongue has done and may do, is beyond calculation. 
A single word dropped into the ear may leave a 
venom behind to work and rankle and inflame the 
heart, to fever human existence, and to poison human 
society at the fountain-springs of life."'^* 

If we could trace to their origin some of the blackest 
deeds that have ever disgraced history, we should find 
them taking their rise in thoughtless and unguarded 
words. It is not always the men who deal in furious 
and turbulent invectives — who are always ready to 
obtrude their offensive temper and opinions upon 
others — it is not they who enact the daring deeds of 
history. No: such deeds are generally done by ob 
scure individuals, who brood in dismal silence over 
the violent and intemperate language they hear. It 
was no doubt the inflammatory speeches of the South- 
ern fire-eaters, and their Northern sympathizers, which 
produced that monster of modern times, John Wilkes 

* Robertson's Sermons. 



OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 31 

Booth. Tl'iey gave the acts of Mr. Lincoln so dark and 
malignant a coloring, and held np his character to such 
infamy and reprobation, that Booth, having every sen- 
timent of justice perverted, and every feeling of patri- 
otism crushed, felt justified in perpetrating a deed 
which has sent a thrill of horror and indignation into 
the remotest corner of the civilized world. " I thought 
I was doing for the best," were among the last utter- 
ances of the deluded wretch. 

Let us take warning, fellow-citizens; for, in conse- 
quence of the increasing violence of party spirit, we 
are drifting to a state of things in which just such a 
character might arise. We are fast hastening to that 
point when our government will be no longer a gov- 
ernment of the people — but a government of party. 
The people are beginning to think no longer in a free, 
honest, natural manner. We seem to be losing our 
individuality. Every thing is party. Principle is 
losing that free play w^hich it once had. Every thing 
is opposed or favored from a party stand-point. 

It is not to party that I object ; for I believe that 
the existence of two honest, earnest, zealous, active 
political parties in the community is wholesome. But 
what is lamentable, is the party spirit manifesting it- 
self among us — discoloring or coloring erery action to 
suit itself. There is not an act, however virtuous and 
honorable, which may not be distorted to suit party 
purposes. Party spirit is always ready to give cur- 
rency to every thing that will injure its opponent. It 
is always ready to draw hasty inferences. Instead of 
checking a mischievous and injurious report,, it is 
always ready to put forth all its efforts to give it ac- 
tivity and circulation. The good intentions of a man 
cannot shield him from the most violent attacks. Be- 



32 OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

fore any action is judged, it is turned wrong side out, 
and the most malignant construction of wliicli it is 
susceptible is attached to it. Thus one party is ever 
doing the grossest injustice to the other; and nothing 
seems more to delight a bitter partisan than to be en- 
gaged in sending through the country a tale of detrac- 
tion against his opponent. 

Now, I would earnestly appeal to you, fellow-citi- 
zens, and ask whether we, as rational men, just found- 
ing a nation, should be content to go on at this rate ? 
These things are sapj)ing the foundations of society. 
Every man is becoming distrustful of his neighbor. 
That mutual confidence, which is the surest guarantee 
of strength and prosperity, is becoming most fearfully 
impaired. Oh ! let us resolve, from this day, to with- 
draw our counteuance from all violent party feeling, 
and cultivate a spirit of charity and brotherly kind- 
ness. 

But there is a disposition, the opposite of j)arty 
spirit, whick is, if possible, still more reprehensible. 
It is that careless, listless living for one's self — caring 
for nothing that does not come immediately in contact 
with one's personal interests — j)^!'''^^^^^ who do no posi- 
tive harm — a kind of easy, good-for-nothing people. 
There are those among us who profess to be utterly in- 
different as to what happens. For their own individ- 
ual part, they know that they will come off about as 
well as any one else. These are men who live for 
themselves ; and they are the most contemptible of 
characters. They are "neither cold nor hot." They 
have no pride of country, and no love of race. Dante, 
the great Italian master of song, tells us, that for such 
persons, when they die, there is no place in heaven or 
hell. They have their lot among those angels who, in 



OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 33 

the great war in heaven, did not join the rebel angels, 
neither were faithful to God, Lnt preferred their own 
ease — they icere for tliemselves alone. The im]3etuous 
contempt which the poet felt for such characters, is 
perceived better in the original than in any English 
translation : 

Cacciarli i eiel per non esser men belli 

Xe lo profondo inferno gli riceve, 

Clie alcuno gloria i rei avrebber d'elli.* 

Inferno, Canto III. 

No ; we can not, "\ve must not, in matters pertaining 
to the national welfare, maintain a base neutrality. 
We must, as a holy and solemn duty, labor to benefit 
our country. We must not content om^selves with 
joining the general depreciation and lamentation con- 
cerning national decline and ruin. We must, we are 
in duty bound, to do all we can, by earnest effort and 
self denial, to arrest the downward tendency of things. 
The love of country is a virtue. We are bound to 
seek its honor and its welfare. We are under the 
strongest obligations to live, labor, and suffer in its 
behalf 

And we must cultivate pride of race. Longfellow 
has sung of the " dead past ;" but we must allow him 
such an assertion as a poetic privilege. In reality^ the 
past is not dead. It still lives in activity, and is won- 
deiful in its influence upon the present. The child is 
father to the man. Our antecedents often exert a 
most depressing influence upon us. We have been 
so cruelly oppressed, that we have, in a great meas- 
ure, lost our self respect. Almost any little untoward 
event will scare us into the belief that we cannot suc- 

» " Heaven chased them forth to keep its beauty from impair ; and the deep 
hell receives them not, for the wicked would have some glory over them." — Car- 
hilt's tramhlion. 
3 



34 OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

ceecl in our undertaking on tliis coast. But we must 
endeavor to shake off the influence of the past. We 
must have faith in the negro race. 

There is something within us, a God-like principle- 
ever whispering to us the lessons of self-government, 
and telling us of our sublime origin and high destiny ; 
and, during all that dark and dismal night of ojDpres- 
sion and unnumbered woes, that principle remained 
uncrushed, retained its vital activity ; and this day 
every negro, on every plantation, and in every, humble 
cabin, is hearing its secret whispers. Surely we Libe- 
rians should hear and hearken to it. If any man, who 
has lived in Liberia two years, cannot come to believe 
in the ability of the negro race, under favorable circum- 
stances, to maintain an organized, regular, and ade 
quate government, that man has mistaken his country ; 
he should at once pack up bag and baggage, and trans- 
fer his residence to a more congenial clime. And I go 
further, and say, if any man, at all acquainted with the 
history of this country, does not see the hand of God 
plainly guiding and directing our affairs in all tlie 
past, that man would not have seen the pillar of cloud 
by day and the pillar of fire by night before the Israel- 
ites. 

It is provoking to hear men sometimes going around 
despising themselves and disparaging the oppoi'tunities 
they have for usefulness in this country ; indulging in 
the most doleful prophecies of the future. Such a dis- 
position is the very kind to kill all enterprise, and to 
extinguish every noble asj)iration. These persons have 
no confidence in Liberia's stability. For them, the fu- 
ture is nothing. They are ever looking backward to 
the past. They pray daily and nightly for the restora- 
tion of things as they were. For them, the sun must 



(9 



OUR OEIGINT, DAXGEES. AND DUTIES. oO 

always stand still, and Jordan always flow Ijackward. 
These men ^vould o-loiw in a resuscitation of tlie dark 
asres. But those days can never return. The school- 
master is abroad. Light and knowledge are multiply- 
ing. The future is upon us, however we may deprecate 
it. AYe cannot prevent its advent. " The only way/' 
says Victor Hugo, " to refuse to-morr(ni\ is to die." 
Oh ! let us bestir ourselves. Let us come to the conclu- 
sion that we will do all we can to secure for Liberia 
a future — glorious future. To live without such a 
prospect is to be dead. '\Yhere there is no future Ije- 
fore a people^ there is no hope ; and where there is no 
hope, there is lifelessness, inactivity, and the eternal 
death. 3n^y- . ^~ ~^ -^ a^^ ^ 
^ We ai^e eno^ao^ed here on this coast in a ereat and 
/noble work. AYe cannot easily exaggerate the mag- 
nitude of the interests involved in the enterprise to 
which we are committed. Xot only the highest wel- 
fare of the few thousands who now compose the Ke- 
public, but the character of a whole race is implicated 
in what we are doing. Let us, then, endeavor to rise 
up to the " height of tliis great argument." There are 
times when the most thoughtless cannot but reflect on 
the condition of the state. AYithin the last two years, 
the most unconcerned, by his immediate wants, has 
been obliged to think ; and we all, now and then, have 
misgivings as to the perjDetuity of our liberties on this 
coast. But " Difliculty is the rude and rocking cradle 
of every kind of excellence;"^ and it is better that 
these seasons of miso-i vines shoidd come, than that 
tliere shoidd be an easy tranquillity, and undisturbed 
self complacency when there is so much still to l>e ac- 

* Gladstone. 






36 OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

complislied. Something has been done ; but what is 
the little we have achieved compared to what has still 
to be done ? The little of the past dwindles into insig- 
nificance before the mighty work of the future. 

Das Wenige verscliwindet leicht dem Blicke, 
Der Vorwarts sieht wie viel noch iibrig bleibt.* 

We are more eagerly watched than we have any 
idea of The nations are looking to see whether " or- 
der and law, religion and morality, the rights of con- 
science, the rights of persons, and the rights of pro- 
perty, may all be secured " by a government controlled 
entirely and purely by negroes. Oh ! let us not, by 
any unwise actions, compel them to decide in the nega- 
tive. 

Descendants of Africa, in other parts of the world, 
have been contributing, and are now contributing, by 
noble deeds, to the vindication of the race. And we 
cannot, in this connection, refrain from referring, with 
"/ admiration, to the heroic deeds of our brethren in the 

United States. Indeed, we should be unpardonably 
{ indifferent if we could remain silent and unmoved 

I spectators of such heroism, unlooked for by their oj)- 

1 pressors, as they have displayed. We feel proud of 

their martial deeds and tkeir valorous demeanor. We 
rejoice with them in their brilliant achievements and 
magnificent success. They have produced a most won- 
derful impression upon the minds of those who for- 
merly stigmatized them as idle, vicious, and lazy. 
Such has been the revolution, in public sentiment,, 
which their prowess has achieved that, whereas in 
former times, a powerful tide of odium ran against the 
men who attempted to advocate their right to liberty. 

* Goethe. 




37 

and tliere was a smile of general connivance, if not ap- 
l^robation, given to those who contended for their per 
l^etual servitude ; now, the contest is not whether the 
neoTo shall be free, but whether he shall be raised to 
equal political rights and privileges with his former 
master. 

We must here also record our heartfelt sympathy 
with oui* brethren in the melancholy loss of one who 
was foremost among those who recognized and appre- 
ciated the valor of the negro. The name of Abeaha^i 
LrN^coLX is engraven upon the heart of every descend- 
ant of Afr'ica. He died for tiaith — for liberty — and 
therefore lie died not only for his countiy, but for 
inanMnd. He was signalized by a worth of character, 
reverenced by all men. He died after having reached 
the maturity of an established reputation. His un- 
bending rectitude, his generosity, the kind acts which 
he did with no arriere pensee^ but on the sj^ontaneous 
instigation of his own noble feelings, have produced 
universal admiration. In him, the voice of conscience 
sjDoke louder than any other consideration. TTe can- 
not imao-ine a more sublime attitude than he assumed, 
when, in Independence Hall, in 1861, his soul kindling 
^vith a sense of justice, the holy flame found vent in 
the memorable words : 

" If this country cannot be saved without giving up 
that principle — I was about to say that I would rather 
be assassinated uj^on the spot than to surrender it." 

And the same unsullied integrity, which he brought 
from Illinois, continued with him, sustained him in his 
eventful career, and dignified its melancholy and tragic 
close. He wiU be known evermore as the Great Eman- 
cipator, 

And as another token of the advance of the race, I 



38 OUE ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

cannot refrain from expressing delight at the disgrace- 
ful but fitting end which has befallen the Southern 
Confederacy. They oj^enly and boastfully professed 
that African slavery was to be the corner-stone of 
their new national fabric. But, as they might have 
known, they could never have succeeded in firmly 
establishing themselves. They had the united pray- 
ers of a whole race against them. Africans every- 
where felt it a solemn duty to pray for their down- 
fall. Of all communities that have ever struggled for 
separate national existence — that have ever claimed 
admittance into the family of nations — the so-called 
Confederate States w^ere certainly the most hideous 
and unsightly; claiming, as they did, to build them- 
selves u|) upon the blood and bones of a feeble people. 
They w^ere the Thersites of civilization, whom Homer 
describes as the ugliest and most deformed of the war- 
riors that appeared before the walls of Troy : 

Atax^aro^ de avrjp vno 1?ilov r]X6ev 

(I'oXiiog erjv, X^Xoz^ (5' Ite^ov noda — K. T. A.^ 

" Basest man to Troy that came, 

Squint-eyed, bandy-legged, his shoulders slung ; 
Bunched on his chest, while from between them sprung 
._^ His peaked head, with scant hair sprinkled thin." 

From this monster of iniquity, the Lord has delivered 
his j)eople. The horse and his rider hath He over- 
thrown in the deep. 

The parallel has often been instituted between the 
case of the Jews in Egypt, and that of the descendants 
of Africa in the United States ; and we think that the 
comparison is correct. Indeed, God himself, by the 
mouth of his holy prophet, made the comparison. 

* Iliad, Book II. 



OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 39 

" Are ye not as tlie cliil Jreii of tlie Ethiopians unto 
me, O cliiklren of Israel, saitli the Lord r Amos 9 : 7. 
This is a fair and distinct comparison. And, certainly, 
in the wonderful preservation and multiplication of 
our i^eople in the land of their bondage ; in the cruel 
and oppressive laws made against them a little before 
their deliverance ; in the series of astoundino- events 
attending their emancipation ; in the death of the 
leader, with eyes undhnmed, and natural force un- 
abated, who was instrumental in brino-incr them out 
of the house of bondage ; in all these particulars, they 
resemble the Jews. But is the parallel to stop there ? 
Are they to sojourn in the land of their bondas^e ? 
Are they to find a resting-place in the home of theii^ 
oppressors ^ We, at least, may be permitted to doubt 
it. We greatly fear that should the blacks continue to 
dwell there, the intercourse between them and their 
white l)rethren, instead of being an intercourse of 
peace, and fiiendship, and righteousness, will be one 
of avarice and political injustice on the one hand, and 
of heart-burnings, jealousies, and discontent on the 
other. It is not that we wish the ])lacks to be 
forced, by any legal enactments, out of the country 
of their birth against their will ; for we honestly be- 
lieve that . centuries of toil, and suifei'ing, and blood- 
shed, entitle them to resj^ectable and honorable resi- 
dence in that land; and we believe that, amidst all 
the political and social rapacity, of which they may be 
the objects, they Avill bear themselves with the most 
exemplary forbearance and moderation. But we 
think that half the time and energy which will be 
spent by them in struggles against caste — in kindlino- 
a fire to consume the shirt of the assassin"* — if devoted 

* See Sumner's Oration on the death of Lhicoln. Boston, Juno I, IS6o. 



40 , OUK OKIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIES. 

to the building up of a home and nationality of tlieir 
own, would produce results immeasurably more useful 
and satisfactory. We know that the gale of public 
applause, which now fans them into a lustre of such 
splendid estimation, is evanescent and temporary ; and 
we say to them — waiving all higher and nobler con- 
siderations — ^better is a lowly home, among your own 
people, than th-e most brilliant residence among stran- 
gers. We tell them, in the jDrudent words of old No- 
komis : 

" Like the fire upon the hearthstone 
la a neighbor's homely daughter ; 
Like the starhght or the moonKght, 
Is the handsomest of strangers."* 

Or, in the unerring words of inspiration : Better is a 
dinner of herbs, when surrounded by the sincere love 
and affection of kindred, than the stalled ox of honors 
and preferments, and strife therewith. 

The tendency among the nations now seems to be to 
group themselves according to natural affinities of sen- 
timent and race. Witness the struggles in Italy — the 
dreams of Mazzini and Garibaldi, with reference to the 
unification of that country. Germany is striving after 
consolidation. The same principle is at work in Hun- 
gary, and the visions of Kossuth may yet be realized. 
Even Poland is feeling for the same thing ; and the 
mysterious Fenian movement is significant. In the 
Western world, Mexico and Santo Domingo are deter- 
mined to assert and protect their unity and freedom. 
The tendency in that direction is seen everywhere. 
Aliens will be eliminated. The nations seem resolved 
that no diversities of interests shall exist among them. 

* Longfellow's Hiawatha. 



41 

And no doubt, ere long, the conviction will force itself 
upon tlie minds of our brethren in the land of their 
exile, that their condition in the United States is an 
unnatural one. The reaction to the present state of 
things will doubtless come, and disappointment and 
irritation will ensue. Would it not be wisdom, then, 
in the leaders of the blacks in America, to catch at 
once the spirit of the age, and encourage among their 
people a feeling of nationality and of union ? 

Here is a land adapted to us — given to us by Provi- 
dence — peculiarly ours^ to the exclusion of alien races. 
On every hand we can look, and say it is ours. Ours 
are the serene skies that bend above us; ours the 
twinkling stars and brilliant planets — Pleiades and 
Venus and Jupiter ; ours the singing of the birds, 
the thunder of the clouds, the roaring of the sea, the 
rustling of the forest, the murmurs of the brooks, and 
the whispers of the breeze. The miry swamp, sending 
out disease and death, is also ours; and ours the malig- 
nant fever — all are ours, 

" No pent-up Utica contracts our powers — 
The whole boundless continent is ours." 

And here, if we would have our race honored and 
respected, we should try to build up a nation. " The 
greatest engine of moral power known to human 
affairs," says Edward Everett, " is an organized, pros- 
perous state. All that man, in his individual capacity, 
can do — all that he can effect by his private fraterni- 
ties, by his ingenious discoveries and wonders of art, 
or by his influence over others — is as nothing com- 
pared with the collective, perpetuated influence on 
human affairs and human happiness of a well-consti- 
tuted, powerful commonwealth." 



\ 



42 OUR ORIGIN, DANGERS, AND DUTIE. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS « 

030 019 728 



We have made a fair beginning of such a common- 
wealth. Here we are, with all our unfavorable ante- 
cedents, still, after eighteen years of struggle, an inde- 
pendent nation. We have the germ of an African 
empire. Let us, fellow-citizens, guard the trust com- 
mitted to our hands. The tribes in the distant in- 
terior are waiting for us. We have made some im- 
pression on the coast ; and, God helping us, we shall 
make wider and deeper impressions; and as those 
regions have bloomed and blossomed as the rose, 
whither our influence has already extended, so the 
regions beyond, as our influence expands, shall re- 
ceive the same blessing ; the wilderness and the soli- 
tary place shall be glad for us ; until the whole land 
becomes the garden of the Lord. The light intrusted 
to us will be passed on from' tribe to tribe, until we 
encircle the land in a glorious blaze, realizing the 
beautiful prophetic vision : 

" I saw the expecting legions stand, 
To catch the coming flame in turn ; 
I saw from ready hand to hand 
The bright but struggling glory bum. 

" And each, as she received the flame, 
Lighted her altar with its ray ; 
Then smiling to the next which came, 
Speeded it on its sparkling way." 

And let us, in giving an impulse to civilization on 
this continent, take warning from the examples ox 
other nations, and so demean ourselves, that Liberia 
may eventually take her stand among the foremost 
nations of the earth, " free from the blood of all men," 
with laurels unspotted and pure, and with a pros, 
perity untarnished by the tears and anguish and blood 
of weaker races. 



MAT 8, '^v^G. 



